Big private equity investors are taking advantage of a flood of capital from wealthy individuals to cash out their buyout fund holdings at higher prices despite the industry’s years-long downturn.
Some of the largest evergreen vehicles, which allow retail investors to deposit and withdraw cash at regular intervals, have bought swaths of private equity fund stakes from institutional investors seeking liquidity after a dearth of distributions.
That extra demand has helped prop up prices for stakes in private equity funds on the secondary market, even as some institutional investors have cooled on investing in new funds because of the difficulties buyout firms have had exiting investments and returning cash to their backers.